Solidarity with anti-police brutality solidarity protestors.

Around 2,000 anti-police solidarity protestors occupied West field shopping Centre in London last night, as the group formed a huge die in  to protest at  the Staten Island Grand Jury's decision  not to indict Police Officer Daniel Panteleo Garners death  on December 4th. Protestors describing the mood as  jubilant,  many holding aloft placards that read I can't  breathe an no justice , no peace.
People were obviously angry, and justified in being so,  for the situation that has  become critical in the U.S, that is also a problem internationally, as seen with the killing of the Palestinian Zihad Abu Ein the minister of the wall and settlement resistance suffocated to death by  an Israeli  policeman in the West Bank,  and here in the U.K that urgently needs  addressing.Police brutality must come to an end.

The police used intimadatory methods, a met standard which  resulted in 76 people being arrested, people kettled, despite the support of shoppers and staff.

So doing a die  in  results in arrests, but actually causing people to die leads to nothing.  Tell me where's the justice in this?  Many have now been bailed with some still being held  but  all will still need our support.
People are learning again to stand up and be counted, in solidarity, they find strength, and time and time again it is proved, that tactics used against peaceful protests do not work, as people return to the streets in increasing numbers, getting  stronger and stronger.

The 1984/85 Miners Strike remembered as Winters draws it's breath

Haunting image of the 1984/85 British miners strike. We should never  forget the brave men and women  who stood up to the Thatcher Government. And never forgive the police who brutalised

 the working class men and women.

30 years ago they had been on strike  for about 9 months and were ready to face Christmas on strike. The propoganda  from the government, Coal Board and the police was relentless. Many were suffering real hardship. But were to stand solid for a further 3 months. With friendship and solidarity, despite the unbelieavable significant hardship and relentless harassment  they refused to be broken. United by struggle, united by belief,  generating images  of strike action that remain powerful today
It was difficult to get  by at any point  in the strike, but it is difficult for anyone who was not there to imagine what Christmas was like  for  the many mining communities, as parents relied on their unions, charity and the goodwill  of strangers  miles away  for presents for their kids.
The bitter  legacy of Thatcher is  that 20,000  people die in the UK every winter because they cannot afford heat, yet the  very industry that could have sustained people was crushed, and closed down. Resulting in  20,000  people dying every  year  in the past  30 years  because of Margeret Thatchers's cruel twisted policies. Lest we forget

  
                                            Notice the boarded up fireplace.

Remembering John Rety (8/12/30 - 3/2/10) - Anarchist, Poet and Artist

Today I remember  writer, editor, artist, publisher, chessplayer, anarchist and pacifist John Rety.
Born Reti Janos to a Jewish family in Budapest in 1940, his political views were shaped by his childhood experiences. His grandmother escaped a pogram in Serbia by swimming across a river with her children strapped to her back, while following the outbreak of war, John's family knew life as Jewish people was going to be extremely difficult.As a child partisan  in the second-world war he saw his grandmother shot in front of him
An anarchist  from a young  age he was sub-editor of one of its  leading journals Freedom between 1963 -1968. A rich and colourful  life, after arriving in London in the 1950's  he became a painter, and started to produce  still-lifes and landscapes, something which he subsequently  gave up in 1977, after sadly  his studio was broken  into and all his painting  stolen. Luckily for the world he would take up  poetry.
John met his partner Susan Johns in 1958. Together they moved into Robert Street, Regent's Park and scraped a living by  putting on a ja night at a Soho baseent bar, then ran a second hand furniture store in Camden High Street.
On all accounts  he was a gentle human being, of huge intellect, with depth and power with unwavering political passion, with  undoubtable charm and humour, dedicating his life to the causes of  peace,  he was active against the Vietnam War, a member of the radical anti nuclear group the Committe of 100, a supporter of squatters rights, libertarian education,  and the myriad forms of freedom and social justice.When the land rights group The Land is Ours  occupied a derelict plot owned by Guiness in 198. and turned it into an experiment in sustainable and cooperative living, John described the South London site as "anarchy in action",saying that as a partiipant, he had " now seen anarchy in practice and, so far, it works." (Freedom, 18 May, 1996)
 He was respected by all who came across him. He was also an accomplished chess player and  passionate listener of music.He was to become well known in the  literary world for his contributions to poetry, founding in 1982, the Torriano Meeting House
 https://torrianomeetinghouse.wordpress.com/  in Kentish Town, North London which became known for its performances, exhibitions and political activities, which is also where   he founded  the Hearing Eye Press http://hearingeye.org/  a wonderful publishing house that he ran with  his partner Susan  1987 which continues to  this day.
He had a non-sectarian approach to life, avoiding walls and was to become poetry editor of the Morning Star, where  he published a different  poet every week, releasing the superb poetry collection Well Versed in 2008 with a foreward  by the late Tony Benn.
His own poetry has been a source of tremendous  comfort and joy since I first encountered them, spontaneous free verse of much inspiration, richly evocative, and imaginative.
He died of a heart attack on the third of February 2010,aged 79, his legacy a rich and strong one, still touching and resonating with peoples lives.


" There  is no other movement  in the country or anywhere  in the world, which operates as does the anarchist, openly,  spontaneously and altruistically. We do not resign to superstition, bigotry, chauvinism of any kind. We are not afraid of power,  neither master nor slave."

- John Rety, 28.1/95


I conclude with 3 poems from his pen that I particularly enjoy.


Art and the Man

The  man in the garden was numbering
the leaves
the tree was  just  a tree
The man was just a man
The numbering took ages
That was in the Summer
Every  leaf was numbered
in the Autumn the man
Gathered the fallen  leaves.

The man was in the garden pinning  back
the leaves
the tree was no longer just a tree
The man was no longer just a man
He was an Artist and his work of art was
the tree.


Tenant

Oh yes,  we can ignore  the shouting
whether behind closed doors
or out  in the open fields.
We can choose our friends
And ignore the problems of
the dirty, the unwashed, the ignorant
And avoid if we can the aggressive
Close our eyes to the beggars of the town,
Oh yes,  we can ignore the shouting
We can ignore our own pleading,
our own anxieties.
We are not as bad, not as ugly
Not so stupid as that raving
That undescribably filthy
Oh yes we can hear what is decent
We can hear the nice noises, the acceptable ones
We can hear the adding machine, the police siren,
The everso friendly voices on the screen
On the pulpit, on the rostrum and on the telephone
the quick cheery tune that escorts us across the
     street.
They are sanctioned these voices
Therefore they are good.
Oh yes, we can ignore the shouting
Our lease  is duly signed
And our job is secure
Here is your key, now get on with it,
Noon day and night
Secure it tight
Leave on the light
Let them think your hovel is occupied
While you are on a flight
to some exotic sight
Oh yes, we can ignore the shouting
And we can hardly remember
The shouting, the misery, the  desperation
All that is of the past
The utter, utter degradation,
Now is our turn, my turn,  my key's turn.

Freedom

                  for Philip on his seventieth birthday

Where is that land
Show me that land
Don't say it  never existed
Petofi, Makhno and Durutti-
did they all die in vain?
Are we just  dreamers ansd
Abstract thinkers
Don't we know more than that?
What I don't know, you might know
Somebody, somewhere  on the wide ocean
Up a high mountain
Where beauty conquers terror
Might still know where
Behind the  screen of clouds
-Don't tell me it's only in my mind-
Is that land, the land of the free,
Don't say it never existed.


Further Reading:-

Songs of Anarchy and other Poems; Box 2 1989

Notebook in Hand: New and Selcted Poems 2012

Through the Anarchist  Press; a Column in Freedom; 1996
Beautifully illustrated by his daughter Emily Johns

Angela Davis - A Message

 Angela Davis is known internationally for her ongoing  resistance to all forms of oppression, supporting the movements of social justice in the.  U.S and abroad.Her messages from the past still hold much power and relevance,  especially in relation to events that have happened in our recent past

excerpt from the black power mixtape

"I mean that's  why when someone asks me about violence.... I just  find it incredible. Because what it means is that the person asking that question has no idea what people have gone through...  what black  people have experienced in this country since  the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores of Africa."

"Something is wrong.... Maybe the real criminals in this society are not the people who populate the prisons... but those who have stolen the wealth of the world from the people... and everytime a Black child dies ....we should indict them for murder because they're  the ones  who killed that black child." 

" No potential victim of the fascist  terror should be  without the knowledge that the greatest  menace to racism and fascism is unity!"


-Angela Davis


AND FROM NEW YORK TO GREECE TO PALESTINE


WE REVOLT BECAUSE WE CAN'T BREATHE

A Picture speaks a thousand words.

Pictures speak a 1,000 words, but as I write more than 180 Palestinian children have been  kidnapped by Israeli occupation forces in the past 45 days. While international  law states that child imprisonment should be used as a last resort, the Israeli  occupation forces view it as a matter of routine. Recently  draconian laws have  been used with greater frequency against children, including Administrative Detention orders which allow for detention without published evidence.
Under  military orders in force  in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, any Palestinian over the ageof 16 is considered an adult, while  inside Israel  the age of an adult is 18. Moreover,  a Palestinian child over 14 years are tried as adults in an Israeli military court, and are put into prisons with adults. These are direct violations of international law.
When children are arrested they are usually taken to  adult military detention centres and interrogation centres. There are no specialist juvenille facilities, courts or personnel  within the Israeli system apart from Telmond prison. Children held in Israels prisons are beaten, tortured, placed in solitary  confinement, and made to stand in cages outside in the cold. This is a systematic, institutionalised and  co-ordinated attempt  by Israels Government and Army to make their presence felt, as humiliation daily continues, taking the occupation  to an extreme and absurd level, that  will undoubtedly have a significant impact on their future  development as individuals. It is obvious to me that some people in this world have no shame at all. These are  more reasons why I keep  on posting about issues that I feel should concern the world. This is not how a normal state acts, and by refusing to sanction this rogue state for its abuses,Western governments themselves become complicit  in these crimes against children. 

Big Brother is watching you.

One way or another, the Home office and Theresa May wants police surveillance off everyones web and mobile records and the banning of unpleasant opinions. The anti-terrorism and security bill will oblige internet service  providers (ISPs) to retain information linking IP ( Internet Protocol) addresses to individual uses. It will  result in the police getting more   powers to force internet firms to hand over details linked to IP addresses in order  to help identify criminal suspects online.
The fact is that the fear of terrorism and extremist activities, now  makes everyone of us a suspect. Way before the internet we  have lived with fear and suspicion it is  part of our human nature, but with the internet age  it seems it  is now time  for all of us to be treated  like children, who cannot be trusted to act  responsibly based on what we here. Facebook  itself has also started behaving like a worried nanny, it seems you cannot hang bout there under  an identity that your friends know or trust, it seems that if we do not comply , we will be silenced, and turfed out.
Extremity is a state  of mind, that cannot be erased or killed, however hard people try, it can however be pushed further underground where its danger can still be spread. Voices silenced  will only foster more division, paranoia under the orders of what I personally see as a dangerous out of control extremist organisation the Conservative Party.If this does not bother you, then carry on, you might be  comfortable that 'Big Brother' is watching you, but I ask you who is watching Big Brother. Could someone tell the government and the opposition, because they don't seem to have been kicking up much of a fuss, that the George Orwell's book 1984 was a warning not an instruction manual.
" Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human liberty. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves" - William  Pitt the Younger.

Keep on Dancing - Gabrielle Roth (4/2/41 -22/10/12)

" We dance to reclaim our brilliant ability to dissapear in something bigger, something safe, a space without a critic or a judge or an analyst. The beat is a love that never dissapoints, and  like all loves it demands 100% surrender. It has power to seduce moves  we could only dream. It grabs us by the belly, turns  us inside  out and leaves us abruptly begging for more.
The beat is bad, wicked, sick, whatever the word is now.
Dance to fall in love with the spirit in all things."

This coked up P*****k should be sacked.

Well we would if we turned up in this state. Who knows he might not be under the influence, he could just be a swivel eyed loon., like most of the hypocritical, corrupt elite  that none voted for, that surround him. At the end of the day, whatever he does in private is  up to him, but when he is busy tearing our country apart  and the faces of suffering  are being caught up in  a near end cycle  of misery, due to him and his friends. This mans actions should be accounted for and forever questioned, people  take drugs everyday but do not come up with policies as bad as his, whatever he's on, he's still an arse.In light of the Governments failing drug policy, George Osborne's bizzare appearance at Prime Ministers Question time,  begs the question what planet are some of these M.Ps on, its certainly not ours. Personally think the whole ruddy cabinet should be sacked.

William S. Burroughs - A Thanksgiving Prayer

Uncle Bill...it's time for a Thanksgiving Prayer again. His message  still continues to spin with vitriolic  spin,  delivered to America, still as relevant as ever, still a dark elegy for our times, 28 years after William Burroughs first delivered it. Here he thanks America  for its violence, racism, oppression and homophobia. A nation that still  today cannot seem to mind its  own business. Thank goodness that there are still those outside, that seek to make this world a  place better.

Unbelieavable!: Tony Blair wins Save the Children's Global legacy award 2014.

Tony Blair, the man who was hugely responsible  for killing, injuring and displacing, thousands  of Iraqi  children ( among his many crimes)  has been recognised for his humanitarian work by the worlds  foremost childrens charity, Save the Children.
How could this organisation make such a monstrous error, but their chief executive is known to be a Blair underling. This so called Middle East Peace Envoy, has already been named 'Philanthropist of the year'!! by GQ magazine, while lining his greedy pockets, a friend  and someone who has been  criticised for a range of shadey dealings with autocrats and dictators.
This is a man  known throughout Iraq and Afghanistan  for the trauma that he has caused. To offer him such an accolade and reward is sickening. Tony Blair  because of his support for the 2003 invasion    is guilty of infanticide, the subsequent perhaps one and a half million deaths in a country  where half the population were children.
This man should not  be lauded, should not be applauded, for he has offered the world no apology, he should be shamed, many would like to see his arrest for being what he  represents, nothing but a war criminal, the causer of so much pain and division.
Many of  the charities  own staff have since complained  that the presentation of this award   has discredited  and misappropriated and betrayed  Save the Childrens founding principles and values.It is worth noting that Save the children  recently appointed Samantha Cameron, wife of Dave, as their 'Ambassador for Syria, and their  chief executive Justin Forsyth was special envoy to Blair for three years, perhaps it's just a case of us not actually being in it all together.
I am truly outraged that Save the Children, is being seen as contributors to the impunity, whitewashing and rehabilitation of this hollow man. An organisation that represents and serves the interests of children should not be complicit  in whitewashing the innocents  killed.I can see no justification in this reward, his reputation for many remains rotten to the core.
Please join me is supporting this campaign to get this reward removed from a warmongerer and profiteer of death who has long poisoned the well of public trust.






http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-save-the-children-charity-from-giving-tony-blair-their-annual-global-legacy-award